My Work is Loving the World
by Mary Oliver
[Listen to Audio!]
 My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the mouth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
About the Author: This is the first poem in Mary Oliver‘s collection Thirst, titled, "The Messenger."
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My Work is Loving the World
How do you relate to the notion that our work is to love the world? Can you share a personal experience of a time you felt that what mattered most was to stand still and learn to be astonished? What practice helps you develop gratitude for your life? |
| man wrote: beautiful, so simple, stand still and be amazed, yet we are all worriers first and foremost, making plans, worrying about plans, full of regrets, worrying about missed things, such a waste of preciou… |
| Abhishek wrote: Beautiful poem…manages to capture that space of stillness in some ways for me…. As a part of nature, I try to think of myself as a leaf of a large tree….the leaf that will fall off eventually b… |
| Jagdish P Dave wrote: I am looking for beauty far away in the snow clad Himalayas; I am seeking fragrance in the flowers in the garden of Aden; I am searching for the holy foot prints on the sand of the Ganges; and … |
| david doane wrote: Our work, responsibility, and privilege is to love the world. Our world is Mother Earth, and we are of it. What we do to it we do to ourselves. We pollute it, exploit it, disease it… |
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